Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

As I said before, the importance of sport in Indigenous affairs is well known around Australia. In particular, I would like to discuss the Clontarf football academies. Clontarf is in my electorate of Swan. The Clontarf Foundation was born there, with Gerard Neesham. We all know what he did with the Sydney Swans, Swan Districts and East Fremantle. Now, with the success of his academies, he has this most effective program to encourage Indigenous students to participate in school and sport at the same time.

I know from my time playing AFL, and being involved with quite a few Indigenous players at East Perth over the years, the importance of it to them and how holistic it is with their total outcomes in life, particularly with some of the junior development programs that are run at the Perth Football Club, where I have been the director for junior development and am currently the patron. Those programs are run hand in hand with the Clontarf academies, encouraging Indigenous participation, particularly from the lower SES areas in my electorate, like Belmont, Lynward, Langford and those types of areas. They are currently looking at a proposal with the West Coast Eagles to have a program which involves developing people socially, holistically, and getting them back not only into sport but into school.

The Clontarf Foundation is responsible for those academies. It was established in 2000, for 25 boys in Waterford, in my electorate. That used to be a place for people from broken homes or orphanages. A gentleman I brought here many years ago said he escaped from there in the 1930s, along with 25 other boys, but they were eventually caught and sent off to other institutions. It was a good story. But Clontarf now have over 55 academies around Australia, with 2,900 students. The aim is to improve the education, discipline, self-esteem, leadership and employment prospects of young Aboriginal students.

You have already highlighted how much of a focus you are putting on that area. The Clontarf program works by using the existing passion that Indigenous boys have for football to attract the boys to school and keep them there. In order for them to remain in the academy, the students must consistently endeavour to attend school regularly, apply themselves to the study of appropriate courses and embrace the academy's requirements for behaviour and self-discipline. Additionally, full-time locally based Clontarf staff mentor and counsel students on a range of behavioural, lifestyle issues to complement the education provided by schools and the AFL aspect provided by the academies.

In the short time you have left, could you outline what funding has been allocated to programs that encourage Indigenous participation in education in the budget, particularly with regard to programs in my electorate of Swan?

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